,Screenshot of Western Michigan-Michigan football game.
War has been declared from Cleveland. The Mid-American Conference refused to back down Tuesday, as it announced that it’s sending formal appeals to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff, and that everybody start recognizing Western Michigan as the winners of Saturday’s primetime matchup on NBC.
The real final score, repeat after MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, is 12-7:
After further study and investigation, it is now evident that replay protocol was not properly followed in determining whether time remained on the game clock at the conclusion of the Western Michigan vs. Michigan football game.
The established replay protocol requires that the game clock displayed on the program feed be used in determining whether time remained. Instead, the Big Ten Conference replay crew relied upon the clock feed embedded within its replay system. As a result, one second was placed back on the game clock and an additional play was awarded.
This was not a judgment regarding the proper amount of time to place on the clock. It was an error in the application of the established replay protocol governing this specific end-of-game timing situation. Had the protocol been properly followed and the program-feed clock been used, no additional play would have been awarded, and Western Michigan would have won the game, 12–7.
As a result, the Mid-American Conference has submitted formal appeals to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff. The MAC is requesting that those bodies recognize Western Michigan as the actual winner of the game for purposes of their respective rankings, evaluations and selection deliberations, and take such other corrective action as may be within their authority.
In the letters, Steinbrecher details the end-of-game procedure networks and officiating crews go through to determine these final-second instances.
“The established protocol for resetting the game clock at the end of a half provides:
“The Communicator should immediately alert the Replay Official when the in-stadium
“The on-field crew is then alerted through O2O to hold both teams and confirm that the game is not over
“The Communicator contacts the television truck and requests that the in-stadium game clock insert (embedded clock) be shown on the program feed.
“The Replay Official/Replay Center Official then determines whether time should be restored to the game clock based solely upon the game clock insert on the program feed.
“In this instance, the established protocol was not followed. Rather than relying upon the designated game clock displayed on the program feed, the Big Ten replay crew relied upon a separate clock embedded within its replay system. The two clock feeds were not synchronized.”
The clock you saw on NBC never lied to you. Not even for a second.
